The 31-year-old Hernández hit 49 homers over three rounds that totaled 3.98 miles. He’s the primary Dodgers participant to win the derby.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Los Angeles Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández received the Dwelling Run Derby when he beat native star Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas Metropolis Royals 14-13 within the closing spherical Monday evening.
The 31-year-old Hernández hit 49 homers over three rounds that totaled 3.98 miles and have become the primary Dodgers participant to win the derby. Kansas Metropolis has by no means had a winner.
Witt, needing one to tie with one out remaining, drove a ball to one of many deepest elements of the park in left-center, the place it hit midway up the wall.
Each completed their two-minute closing spherical with 11 homers, earlier than bonus swings have been added. Witt got here up in need of his first two bonus swings, then hit two homers in a row — one a 457-foot drive that obtained him yet one more swing.
Witt was the No. 2 total decide by the Royals in 2019 out of Colleyville Heritage Excessive Faculty, about 15 miles north of Globe Life Area. It was his first time within the derby, however he was the highschool residence run champion in Washington in 2018 — and is the one participant to compete in each contests.
Witt had knocked out Cleveland switch-hitter José Ramírez 17-12 within the semifinals. Hernández beat Philadelphia’s Alec Bohm 16-15 after a tiebreaker when each obtained three swings — Hernández hit two out, and Bohm one. They have been tied at 14 after the three-minute phase and their bonus rounds, and Bohm got here near avoiding that, however the final ball he hit then landed on the warning observe in left-center discipline.
Ramírez and Bohm each hit 21 homers to tempo the primary spherical. Witt began with 20 homers and Hernández had 19.
The New York Mets’ Pete Alonso fell quick in his bid to hitch Ken Griffey Jr. as a three-time derby champion when he hit solely 12 homers within the first spherical.
As an alternative of a single-elimination bracket like final 12 months, the 4 hitters with probably the most homers within the first spherical superior to the semifinal spherical. It then grew to become a bracket-style competitors.
Alonso hit a 428-foot homer to left-centerfield on his first swing, however could not get right into a rhythm. The others knocked out after the primary spherical have been hometown favourite Adolis García of Texas, Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna and Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson.
“It is disappointing, however for me, I believe it is actually only a blessing and it is simply of enjoyable being on the market,” Alonso mentioned. “On the finish of the day, it wasn’t my day.”
Ozuna did have the longest homer of the evening at 473 toes. Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels in 2022, and Oakland’s Seth Brown in 2021 have each hit 472 toes homers in video games on the stadium that’s now in its fifth season.
Bohm, considered one of a franchise-record eight Phillies named All-Stars, has solely 11 homers this season — the fewest among the many eight derby opponents. He mentioned he was going to attempt to hit as many balls as he might to left discipline and did — pulling all 21 of his homers that means within the first spherical.
“Who would have thought?” Bohm mentioned after the primary spherical about advancing.
Ramirez hit left-handed, a change from what he has achieved when hitting in previous residence run contests, and what he had deliberate till a spherical of batting apply Monday.
It nonetheless felt like 100 levels (38 Celsius) exterior Globe Life Park when the derby started, however the retractable roof was closed on the stadium that opened in 2020. When the Rangers hosted the 1995 All-Star Recreation throughout the road of their previous stadium with no roof, the derby wasn’t but a prime-time occasion and was held within the sweltering mid-afternoon warmth.
Frank Thomas received in 1995 with 15 homers over three rounds in a distinct format. Albert Belle completed with a complete of 16, then a Dwelling Run Derby document, however Thomas beat him 3-2 within the closing spherical.
With García knocked out, there stay solely three gamers who’ve received the title of their residence ballpark. The final was Bryce Harper when he was nonetheless with the Washington Nationals in 2018, after Cincinnati’s Todd Frazier in 2015 and Ryne Sandberg of the Chicago Cubs in 1990.
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